I was chatting about surround sound formats with a salesman at a hi fi store, and he told me that one of his favorite DVD-Audio's was by a band called The Flaming Lips, and it was something about a girl battling robots. I was intrigued, I had never really heard of The Flaming Lips, except some song about a girl that washed her hair with tangerines, but I decided to give the album a shot. I found the album at my local FYE and bought it. I purchased the one that comes with two discs, one regular CD, and a DVD-Audio/Video which has the album in advanced resolution surround sound; advanced resolution stereo; dvd videos, making of videos and bonus songs.

Let me talk about the CD first, because this was my first experience with the band.

I popped the CD into my car audio system on the way home. Strange syntheziser cords filled my car, with a heavily reverberating voice announcement "THE TEST BEGINS NOW!" I loved the sounds and reverb effects used by the band. Then heavily altered guitars come in with the lyrics and drums. The singer begins his earnest and heartfelt singing, and I knew that this was a band I liked. The second track, "One More Robot" has more poppy trippy kind of music, until a bass solo fills in from the right, and lyrics filled my car from the center. The band creates an awesome fun filled stage of sound, and this was just the stereo CD.

By the time the third song, which is the title cut, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1" I was completely hooked. The lyrics just seem tongue in cheek pop, but sung with such sincerity and feeling.

"Her name is Yoshimi
She's a black belt in karate
he ho he ho (sound of women doing karate moves)
working for the city
she has to discipline her body
because she knows that
its demanding
to defeat those evil machines"

I was just amazed, I love this group and was glad that a chance conversation turned me on to them. I don't know what category to place The Flaming Lips. Perhaps, I can start by saying, it sounds like Pink Floyd music might have been if Roger Waters had a terrific sense of humor. The vocalist has a light, but pleasant sounding voice. I loved the bands use of different sounds and effects to create the soundscapes their songs are set against.

The fourth cut, part 2 of Yoshimi battles the pink robots, was just pure musical fun. The sounds just bounce from speaker to speaker, da da da da dum, da da da da dum. (well, you really have to listen to get the effect). You can hear Yoshimi screaming in there somewhere as the band recreates the musical equivalent of those evil pink robots coming to destroy all that is good in our world. The song ends with loud clapping, most likely because Yoshimi has defeated the pink robots.


The songs themselves seemed like an homage or a parody of the Japanimation shows that my nine year old son adores watching. As I listened to the CD I could picture a wide eyed Japanese girl with long blue hair and a school girl dress fighting giant pink transformer style robots. I won't give a play by play description of the remaining tracks, but suffice it to say, I loved the whole album. The album as a whole has a very coherent sound, this works well as a concept album. Although the tracks at the end of the album have nothing to do with robots etc., they have a similar sound and feel. "Do You Realize" for example, philosophizes about how life goes by so fast, and we need to stop and appreciate it. It's a beautiful song. Ah, but I've only covered the music so far, and in stereo, and there's sooo much more!

The DVD Audio portion has a superior recording of the above CD. Hopefully, you have a DVD Audio player, because then you can truly enjoy the fun that the Flaming Lips had with this album. Take the CD with you on your portable player and in your car, and keep the DVD Audio at home. The higher resolution stereo track has the same basic mix as the CD, it just sounds crisper and tighter, because of the inherent nature of DVD - Audio's higher sampling rates and recording processes.

Now let's cover my favorite part of the album, the Surround Sound track! If you thought the CD was fun, the surround sound DVD-Audio is a real treat, and shows just how much you can do with 6 channels instead of 2! Again, "Fight Test", starts with the reverb announcement and the vocals from the center channel, but then the backing vocals come from behind you, and the drums slowly move in a circle around you. In the second cut, "One More Robot" eerie music comes from behind, then the bass guitar zips around the room. You can clearly hear Yoshimi speaking Japanese in the rear speakers now. The lead vocals then float around the room, followed around the room by the backing vocals. Not to sound like a little kid, but "It's so cool!".

"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots part one" follows suite, with the guitar cords whirling around the room again, and Yoshimi talking from the rears. The vocals kick in from the front, then bounce to the rears in an echoish effect. Odd synth sounds come in from the center. "Part Two", all the sounds that I described in the CD portion now are crashing around the entire room! I felt like I was in the middle of a kid's animated cartoon now with Yoshimi screaming behind me, and those evil pink robots coming from everywhere!

The band has continued fun with surround sound effects on each and every song. I have heard many surround sound tracks, but I must admit, the Flaming Lips seem to have the most outright fun with it on their "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" album.

So, is that my review? Heck no, the Flaming Lips crammed this CD/DVD set full of stuff. We are just getting started! Head down to extras and hit DVD video and bang, you now have a whole DVD (playable on any DVD player) of videos! The DVD Video opens with "Do You Realize?" with the lead singer waltzing down the Las Vegas strip strumming his guitar accompanied by giant bunny rabbits and show girls. This is followed by the same song, with a different video version of it. You also get a "Making Of" video for the "Do You Realize" video that you just saw. Also included is the video for Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and the "Making of" video for that. There are also videos for "Fight Test", "Phoebe Battles the Pink Robots" ( a slower mellower version of the Yoshimi song, with just vocals, piano and light guitar), "Christmas on Mars" ( a movie trailer?. Quite bizarre, I think), a "Making of" the DVD Audio and "Are You a Hypnotist?".

Well that's it, except for the bonus audio tracks on the DVD. There is a bonus song, "Up Above the Daily Hum", two more versions of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1" (a Japanese version, and one from an AOL session) , two more versions of "Do You Realize" and "If I Go Mad". I loved hearing Yoshimi sung in Japanese.

Oh yeah, there are also the Wave Length Cartoons, did I mention the Wave Length Cartoons? No, I didn't. One of the other extras is a psychedelic glowing dots cartoon that you can play on your DVD player as you listen to the entire album. It's quite similar to one of the visualization patterns on Winamp or MediaPlayer when you listen to songs on the computer. The dots expand and bounce about with the beat of the song. Apparently, the DVD also features two animated videos when inserted into your DVD-ROM drive. Sadly, I could not get these to play.

All in all, I really enjoyed this album. I now use it to show off the benefits of DVD - Audio and surround sound tracks, because it's the most fun use I have seen of 6 channel recordings. The album stands firmly on its own merit without all the gimmicks though, and the Yoshimi CD played in my car stereo for weeks after I bought it. Remember, when you go out to buy it (and you should!), make sure to get the CD/ DVD set. Even if you do not have a DVD-Audio player, the bonus DVD videos and the bonus songs on the DVD are playable on all DVD players, and it would make it well worth it. The DVD - Audio track is worth going out to get yourself a DVD - Audio player too!



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends